Conventionally, multimedia such as video and audio has been delivered using analog delivery mediums such as NTSC (National Television System Committee) signals, and has been stored using analog storage mediums such as video cassette recorders. The analog signals typically contain uncompressed frames of video. Thus, a significant part of the electronic components in a display device are dedicated to analog receiving hardware, and if the display device has a digital output, electronic components are needed to convert the analog signal to a digital signal. With the advent of digital delivery mediums, such as ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) signals, and of digital storage mediums and DVDs, multimedia can be delivered and stored using pure digital signals. Digital signals typically contain compressed frames of video.
Meanwhile, consumers and business have an increasing number of digital playback devices such as high-definition televisions, digital video recorders, MP3 players and the like. However, the digital playback devices are typically independent of each other. Furthermore, the digital playback devices are likely to use a digital format that is optimized for particular storage and playback capabilities. For example, a high-definition television can use a conventional high-definition signal, but a standard-definition television or a portable video player typically uses a digital signal with different characteristics. Differences in digital formats can include encoding format, bit rate, resolution, and the like.
Due to differences in conventional playback devices, there are limits in the types of digital formats that can be input and output from the devices. In order to handle more digital formats, the complexity of related hardware increases exponentially. One reason for this is that the digital formats are typically decompressed in order to perform operations in the spatial domain to make use of legacy analog techniques which operate on decompressed video. Decompressed multimedia, especially video, requires bulky processing hardware to handle the high bandwidth for data transfers. Decompressed video also requires significant amounts of storage.
Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods to process digital media streams while compressed, thereby reducing the need for complex processing configurations and large quantities of storage.